Navvies at work on the site of Calvert Station

L3089. A foreman stands over a gang of navvies - blurred by their activity - in this industrious scene captured on the site of the Great Central station at Calvert, Buckinghamshire. A line of wagons, perhaps waiting to remove the spoil, waits on the temporary rails. Visible on the right is the contractor's engine CUMBRIA, an 0-6-0 saddle tank locomotive built by the Hunslet Engine Co. in 1878. Provided new to C. Holland of Kilsea, Ireland, the engine was originally named MAGHERA. Interestingly, it was not a standard Hunslet engine: the original gauge was 5' 3', this being reduced to standard gauge width (4' 8.5') on its return to England. Walter Scott & Co., the firm responsible for building this section of the Last Main Line (Contract No.6) still owned the loco in 1903.